The Battle Over the Nefarious Substance
by PlotbunnyChariot
Summary: Dr. McCoy comes back from a landing party to find a certain enemy of his all too near. What will happen next? A lovely little piece of fluff that I think you'll enjoy. Please read and review!


**The Battle Over the Nefarious Substance**

Sudden screaming echoing into the hallway stopped Kirk and Spock in their tracks. They shared a look.

"It's Bones!"

They ran back to the transportation room and burst in to find McCoy yelling and shaking around like a madman.

"Bones, what's going on?!" Kirk yelled above the chaos, signaling rapidly to the Security personnel to hold their fire.

"Get it off get it off get it off!" the doctor yelled uncontrollably.

Suddenly a little speck went flying through the air. "What was…" Kirk didn't get to finish his rushed statement.

"Get it!" Bones shrieked, and Nurse Chapel dove to trap it in a piece of medical equipment she had with her.

"Got it!" she gasped, totally confused about what was going on but knowing to obey without question in emergencies. She'd come back from the landing party with the trio, and the doctor had seemed fine on the planet below. What was wrong with him now?

Bones panted heavily, and Kirk patted him worriedly on the back. "Bones, what happened?"

He wasn't expecting to receive the McCoy Glare of Doom.

"This is what I get for going on a landing party, isn't it?" the doctor growled dangerously. "I didn't want to go to some uninhabited planet to explore, but no, you insisted it was a _tropical _planet. 'It'll be like a shore leave', you said! Shore leave! So I get dragged down there and when I come back, I have some sort of alien _tick _on me. A tick, Jim! I thought I'd escape those in space! A tick!"

Kirk took a step back, wondering at McCoy's sudden and unexplained rampage. "Whoa Bones, relax. It's just a tick. It's tiny. You're far bigger than it…"

"It's not about size, Jim!" Bones exploded. "If that little bug thinks it can suck my blood, it's got a world of hurt coming to it!"

Spock's eyebrows were practically shooting through the roof. "Dr. McCoy, we encountered such a species on the planet and have already catalogued it. It is relatively harmless…" he trailed off as he noticed the doctor's eyes getting wider and wider. "Doctor?"

"Agghhh!" The doctor launched himself towards the Vulcan and crashed into him. Both men fell to the floor. "One's on your arm too! We've gotta get it off!"

**oooooOOOOOOOooooo**

Spock entered the dining hall cautiously and tried to take courage in Jim's arm waving him over to their usual table. Perhaps the doctor had overcome his sudden insanity. Spock had checked the specimen himself, along with some of his lab personnel, but they had found nothing unusual about the tick. It hadn't caused the sudden lack of…prudence in the doctor. Evidently, it was the doctor's own excessive fear of ticks that had caused him to act as he had.

"Hey, Spock," Jim welcomed him as he sat down. "Er, McCoy had something to say to you, _didn't you_, Bones?" He gave the doctor next to him a hard glare.

The doctor cleared his throat. "I, erm…I'm sorry, Spock. About the whole attacking you thing…I, erhem, clearly have a certain paranoia of ticks." He glanced at Jim and hastened to finish. "Jim's convinced me to, er, get some help in that field. So it won't happen again." He cleared his throat, awkwardly nodded, and returned his attention to his meal.

Spock raised an eyebrow but chose not to make a big deal out of it. Neither of them had been harmed, beyond their pride, and the situation had resolved itself as far as he was concerned. Fighting him on this would only make things worse. "Of course, Doctor," he replied smoothly. "I understand completely." It took an extra effort to leave out a criticism of excessive human emotion, but he decided it was worth it when McCoy replied.

The man glanced up quickly before bringing his eyes back to his food, and in that one look Spock saw raw embarrassment and deep gratitude. "Thanks, Spock," McCoy murmured. Spock merely nodded before returning to his salad.

That was, of course, before they heard the yelp.

It was Kirk's turn to do a little jig as he tried to get a tick off of him.

McCoy's eyes gleamed and a wide smile broke out on his face. "Happens to us all, Jim, doesn't it?"

**Why do ticks exist? I mean, seriously? Hope you guys enjoyed it ;) I may or may not have been venting...and it was incredibly fun. Please leave a review before you leave! :)**


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